I wanted to go with a friend of mine to Barcelona, Spain. I booked a flight with Alitalia via Milano, Italy to Barcelona. In the beginning I made jokes because an Italian professor once told me that Alitalia is an abbreviation standing for Always late in travel, always late in arrival. And then I received a call.
The call center agent told me that there would be a strike at Milano airport and that we could either take a flight today or would only have one day in Barcelona. I checked back with my travel mate and tried to take the flight on the same day, but we decided that it would be too risky. Instead we got a flight via Roma, Italy that gave us at least two days in Spain.
When we arrived in Roma I could watch a couple with a small child argueing with the airline staff about a stroller which delayed the baggage unloading. When we arrived in Barcelona with our connection flight we got to know that our luggage was still stuck in Roma, but they said that it is lost.
My companion was very disappointed because she imagined the days before in which dresses she wanted to walk through the city. As a compensation she wanted to get a Coke, her favorite drug, but all vending machines were empty or had a defect. The situation got emotional and ended with the sentence “If we were a couple, we would be separated right know!”. To me the situation was unpleasent, but as a traveller I’m used to those things.
We took a taxi to our hotel, went to the beach for a drink and returned late at night, exhausted. We tried our emergency kits provided by the airport: Toothpaste, a brush and a shirt in size M, for her being a tent, for me a second skin. We were laughing hard. The next day we cheered up with a classic thing: shopping for new cloth.
We visited the fantastic Sagrada Família, the Mercat de la Boqueria and La Rambla, the Parc de la Ciutadella, wonderful Park Güell and the Tibidabo as well as the houses Casa Milà and Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudí.
On the last evening we were faced with fire on crossroads and beaches. It was the Fiesta de San Juan and everyone was partying. The subway was so crowded that the people pushed themselves hard into the coaches. In the morning while packing our backs we found out that the briefcase of my travel mate was missing, including her personal ID card. A pickpocket must have stolen it in the crowded metro.
In this second I was happy that I urged here to get an additional passport from her local administration some days ago. And therefore we could fly back without any problems. Lets say it was a really interesting and challenging trip; one that you don’t forget during your lifetime.
Barcelona
Spain
Loading map...
